WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Thursday, Warner Robins Police identified 52-year-old Gregory Arnett as the man who died after an overnight shooting in a Walmart parking lot. It's the second homicide in Warner Robins this week -- police chief John Wagner says that's unusual.
Looking at national trends, cities across the country are seeing a summer surge in gun violence. According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, nationally there have been nearly 23,000 gun violence deaths so far this year.
When looking at those national numbers, Wagner says the department has also seen a slight uptick in aggravated assault and robberies this year.
The 4th of July shooting near a Motel 6 on Watson Boulevard left 24-year-old Kristopher Mast dead. Just days later, police responded to shots fired in the Walmart parking lot. They found Arnett shot in a car. He later died at the hospital.
“One murder is one too many, obviously, and to have them back-to-back is certainly concerning and frightening,” said Wagner.
Wagner says Warner Robins is not immune to problems being reported across the country -- one solution he has is to connect more with youth.
“There are projects that we want to do with, especially on the juvenile side of the children, because, let's face it, that's where the beginning is with the children. You know when you grow up you know the basis between right and wrong, and if it feels wrong, it probably is wrong,” said Wagner.
One organization doing just that is the Boys & Girls Club of Central Georgia. Rachelle Wilson, Vice President of Mission Advancement, says starting while they're young is key.
“One of the big things we do is we address the risk factors for things like violent crime and other issues that may come later on in life,” said Wilson.
“How to have good character, how to be a good leader, and a lot of that has to do with strategies for conflict resolution that are outside of violence and we talk about how to communicate,” she said.
Wagner says his department will do all they can for this growing city.
“We're almost at 80,000 people so we have a wonderful community a great community, but there's a criminal element that's about it as well as the population grows,” said Wagner.
Wagner says they'll soon be working with another state institution to manage calls about shots fired.
He says they launched an "Operation Safe Streets" initiative the year to focus on some areas with high gun violence -- and he says they'll ramp that up even more.